


Pesciolina, Marxism, and Tiramisu

by you_cant_eat_books_sweetheart



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Babysitting, Fluff, Gen, Light Swearing, Nico is babysitting Estelle, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, This is going to be a bunch of cute oneshots with a loose plot, someone teach me how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29637039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/you_cant_eat_books_sweetheart/pseuds/you_cant_eat_books_sweetheart
Summary: Me and my mutuals have cool brains so now the whole Nico tag on tumblr is full of posts about Nico babysitting Estelle.This is essentially just a series of mostly oneshots with a loose plot all involving Nico and Estelle, or at the very least Nico being good with children, it's just intended to be more or less slightly mindless goodness. Hope you enjoy!(Rating is Teen only for swearing)
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 9
Kudos: 39





	1. Wings That Could Cut

**Author's Note:**

> Content warning: discussions of homelessness in this chapter and the next, nothing extreme, palatable for a child // and light swearing, I might move the rating up to teen eventually for language
> 
> I'd also like to state that this series is just going to be mindless writing so I'm not worrying myself very much with editing or beta-reading, it won't be that bad but if there's a typo or I say "Will will" that's why~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: discussions of homelessness in this chapter and the next, nothing extreme, palatable for a child // and light swearing, I might move the rating up to teen eventually for language
> 
> I'd also like to state that this series is just going to be mindless writing so I'm not worrying myself very much with editing or beta-reading, it won't be that bad but if there's a typo or I say "Will will" that's why~

“Oh yeah, you’re going to kick their fucking asses, don’t worry about it,” Nico picks the blue eyeliner pen he brough with him up out of the bag, “I’ve got you covered, _bimba_.”

Estelle balls her little hands into fists, “Yeah! I’ll kick his ass!”

“Okay, maybe don’t say that your mother might kill me-”

“Oh no, really?”

“Well no, but…” Nico trails off as he rests Estelle’s jaw in his hand, and brings the tip of the eyeliner toward her eye, “close your eyes and hold still.”

Estelle does as she’s told, waiting patiently for Nico to finish. He’s not sure how she does it because at her age he would have been jumping around after a few seconds. After he finishes her first eye he pauses and tells her to get all her wiggles out, so she does a weird little shuffle and flaps her arms around while shaking her hips, before doing what is apparently called “a floss” a few times. Before she looks at him with big green eyes and a smile and says “Okay, ready!”

Nico does her other eye up, making sure the wings are as even and as sharp as he can possibly get them to be, he pulls out a setting spray, “Hold your breath alright?”

Estelle keeps her eyes closed, nods her head, and puffs her cheeks full or air like a small fish- haha, Percy’s sister is a fish too! Nico spritzes the spray across her face lightly smiling slightly at his own little joke. When he pulls the little bottle of spray away and proclaims “all done” excitedly Estelle opens her eyes with a gasp and start skipping over to her little mirror. 

“Oh yes,” she says very seriously in a horrible British accent, “this looks absolutely marvelous.”

She takes time to look into the mirror very properly and very carefully, turning her face slightly and double checking both sides of her face in the mirror, before she proclaims excitedly, “Now we need the skin covering and mascara!”

“Foundation and mascara?” Nico shakes his head, “you don’t need those you’re already pretty enough, I can probably steal some lipstick from your mom?”

“Yeah! Okay!” 

Nico stands up and moves over towards Estelle’s armoire, “Let’s find a dress first, so we don’t smudge the lipstick on anything, yeah?” 

Nico had originally wanted to save the makeup for after the clothes, but Estelle had insisted that it absolutely had to come first. Nico didn’t have the heart to tell her no so he eventually agreed, he was worried about smudging though, he wouldn’t lie. 

Estelle walks over to him to look in her armoire too, she makes grabby hands and Nico picks her up to rest on his hip. She decides nothing in her armoire or closet is worthy of her look, “too pink, not pink enough, too poofy, too soft, too tight, too big…”

“What ever will I do?” Estelle throws herself back on her bed, and she places the back of her hand on her forehead as though she feels feverish. 

“It’s just so hard being a six year old, huh?”

Estelle sits up and looks at him with deep green eyes and a faux pout, “mhmm…”

She kicks her legs back and forth, lightly tapping the back of her heels against her bed. Nico cleans up the makeup stuff he spread on the floor when looking for his blue eyeliner while Estelle starts playing the drums on her thighs. 

“Oh!” She looks up excitedly at Nico, “We could go shopping? Please, please, please~”

“I guess so? Do you want to?”

“Yeah! Can we take Will?”

“Ehh,” Nico pulls his phone out of his back pocket to check the time, “yeah he should be out of class now, I’ll ask if he wants to go.”

“Yes!” Estelle claps her hands happily, before standing up to run across the Jackson-Blofis apartment, “I’ll get my shoes!”

At some time between grabbing coats, and helping Estelle tie her shoes, he gets a text from Will agreeing to meet them at the mall. Nico sends him a quick response, buttons up Estelle’s little coat, and places a hat on her head, and wraps her scarf around her neck too. 

Opening the front door, they walk outside into the hallway, down the elevator and out into Manhattan. Estelle holds his hand, and keeps trying to skip through sludgy snow while she walks alongside Nico. They stop at least twice so Nico can help Estelle wipe her nose which is running from the cold, and the second time Estelle keeps trying to look behind Nico. 

“What are you looking at, hmm?” Nico says pulling out another tissue so Estelle can hold onto one this time.

“Homeless man,” She says in an odd, kind of sad tone, “Mommy says it’s not usually their fault and they usually need help, but why doesn’t anyone help them? There’s so many people and nobody gives them any money, or a house, or food…” 

Nico places the used tissue in a ziploc bag in his pocket, and turns around to see whoever Estelle is looking at. There’s a younger woman sitting up against a building holding some bags beside her, and people pass across her on the busy Manhattan street doing their best to avoid looking at her. 

“Do you want to go buy her some food?”

Estelle looks up at him, “Yeah that seems nice, we don’t have to get my dress, we can buy her food!”

“You can get your dress too, I’ve got enough money. C’mon, there’s a McDonald’s over here.”

They go over to the nearby fast food chain, buy a larger bag of food (enough so it would last the woman a few days but wouldn’t go bad). Nico lets Estelle order whatever she thinks the woman might like, but he adds some foods that have some vegetables and fruit in them (from personal experience). 

While they wait and collect their food, Nico has three women tell him how cute Estelle is, one of them assumes he’s her father, and there is a couple that comes by when they’re collecting their bags from the counter and gives them a dirty look. Nico is used to all of this, he babysits Estelle often enough to know that it’s not worth correcting every person, or even worth the time. Estelle agrees, she thinks it’s okay if people think Nico is her dad, but she thinks they shouldn’t tell her real dad, Paul, that they don’t correct them. 

They go back outside, and across the street to where the woman is still sleeping. Nico makes Estelle stand a few steps back, he knows that sleeping outside makes you likely to startle, and he wants to make sure Estelle is okay if something happens. 

“Excuse me, miss?” Nico crouches down towards her level, “Miss, would you like some food?”

She opens her eyes and looks at Nico with panic, he feels Estelle wrap her arms around his thigh, “It’s alright, I’m a friend, I brought you some food if you’d like it?” 

He shows the woman the bag of McDonalds, “If you’re interested you can have it?”

The woman stares at him for a moment longer, before rubbing the sleep from her eyes, “I, umm… thank you- I- uh-”

“It’s alright, we’re happy to help, right Estelle?”

She steps out from behind Nico, “Yep! We wanted to bring you something, because it’s a little cold, and food is warm, and everyone likes food!”

The woman looks like she might cry, “I don’t know what to say.”

“Thank you is more than enough, I’m sorry I can’t do more, I know there’s a women's shelter two blocks over that way,” Nico points down the street, and then curves his wrist, “and then three that way, but I don’t know the hours, but I think it’s open during the weekends.”

“Yeah, I don’t even have a phone to look that sort of stuff up, thank you so much, I can’t ever like do anything to repay you or to thank you properly, and I know it’s just a bag of food and some directions but it’s-”

“More than anyone else has done for you since you’ve been out here? Yeah… First time? You start to figure it out, I promise, and you don’t owe me anything, I’m just doing what I wish someone would have done for me.”

“You-?”

“Yeah,” Nico says, and the woman finally collects the bag from him before setting it right beside her backpack, “I know it seems crazy to tell you this right now, but it does get better, I’m also sorry I can’t do more for you-”

“No, no, thank you, my parents kicked me out… I was planning on using them to get through college but,” she sighs. 

Nico nods, “Can I see one of the napkins?”

“Yeah sure, here.”

Nico pulls a pen out from his pocket, and writes his name and number on it really quick, “Let me know if you ever get a phone…?”

“Oh, Nikita-"

“Nikita, call me and we can always talk okay?”

“Thank you, thank you.”

Nico takes a step back and takes a deep breath, “Okay then, Estelle? Want to tell Nikita bye-bye?”

“Bye-bye Miss Nikita,” Estelle makes a big wavey hand at her, “bye-bye!”

“Bye sweetheart! I like the makeup!” 

“Thank you, Nico did it for me!”

“Ah, that was nice of him!” Nikita says nodding very seriously, “you’re lucky to have such a cool big brother.”

“Want to hear a secret, he’s not my brother, my brother’s in California, Nico babysits me when mommy and daddy are at work.”

“Ah well then, you’re lucky to have a cool babysitter.”

“Uh huh, he’s the bestest!” Estelle does a little hop in place.

“I’m sure he is, bye-bye dear!”

“Adios- that means goodbye!”Nico shares a smile with Nikita as they both look at Estelle, before Nico grabs hold of her hand again, “Alright, come along little _papera_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me @the-ghost-king on tumblr, and I'd like to thank @heyimboredtalktome, @glassamphibians, and many others for all their cool ideas and additions to this chapter and a few of the following ones!
> 
> Italian:  
> Pescolina means "little fish" in Italian  
> Bimba roughly means "kiddo"  
> Papera means "duck" and is only used for girls
> 
> (I have no idea why this is appearing on the bottom of other chapters it is only for chapter 1... I don't really care that much but just a heads up for anyone)


	2. “I think we’re whatever the nice people are.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dress shopping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did move the rating up to Teen but only for language, people swear okay? Also little kids swearing, of course they're not supposed to, but it's so cute!
> 
> Also like I said this is just for fun, so when I got a little sloppy in my writing and accidentally switched points of view during the story, I'm not worried about it; Nico narrates the first half of this and then I accidentally made Will narrate the second half without a clear break between, oops!

“So why are people homeless? She said her parents kicked her out, what kind of parents do that?” They’re about a block away now, much closer to Manhattan Mall than they were before, Nico had just gotten a text from Will saying he was there. Estelle stops abruptly, “I don’t have to worry about my parents kicking me out right?”

“No, no, your parents love you very much and would never,” Nico assures her quickly, “some people just aren’t very nice about having kids, they’re angry they got a person instead of who they wanted.”

Estelle looks up at him confused, the light above the crosswalk changes, “What does that mean? ‘They got a person instead’?”

“Eh, okay,” Nico looks at her, “You know how sometimes your mom says no more cookies, but you could still eat more cookies, so you do? You eat more cookies because ‘you’re your own person’, right? It’s kind of like that, sometimes people keep eating cookies because the cookies are part of themselves but their parents said no more cookies.”

“I’ll have to stop eating cookies,” Estelle nods to herself thoughtfully.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant- that wasn’t the best example…” Nico takes a second to think, “You know how you’re supposed to ask for a hug first? And if you don’t want a hug you tell people ‘no’ and they listen? Well sometimes parents try to control who their kids can and can’t hug, and they tell their kids what they have to do and when, and when their kid gets uncomfortable because they didn’t want a hug and they were given a hug anyhow, the kid might get upset, and that makes the parents upset, because their kid wasn’t listening, you know?”

“Sometimes my mom tells me I have to take a shower, but I don’t mind, I like showers- I like baths more, but showers are okay too… I like when I’m all done and mommy wraps my hair up in the swirly towel on top, daddy tries to do that but he can never really figure it out.” 

“Not quite what I meant, but sure,” Nico nods, not entirely able to trace her thought process, but she’s not totally off the mark.

“So if her parents were giving her bad hugs then why didn’t her big brother or someone help her? And why does nobody tell her parents to not do that?”

“Some parents aren’t very nice, and they don’t care who tells them they’re wrong they just get rid of them, and sometimes some parents didn’t realize what type of kid they were getting and that makes them uncomfortable or sad so they don’t like to see their kid anymore, it’s sad isn’t it?”

“Mhmm,” Estelle pulls out her tissue and wipes her nose before putting the tissue back in her pocket, her other hand squeezes Nico’s hand tighter, “Why don’t people on the street try to help her? Or give her hugs? Why did nobody else buy her food, why don’t they look at her?”

“A few reasons, but capitalism.”

“What’s capitalbism?”

“Capital-i-sm,” Nico pronounces it more clearly so she can hear better, and he hears her repeating the word again to try to remember it right, “basically it’s the idea that people are better if they have more money.”

“That’s stupid,” Estelle shakes her head, “My mommy is a nice person even though she didn’t have much money before, and Percy says Mr.Trump is a very mean person- and he has lots of money!”

“See? It’s a silly idea.”

“If it’s silly, then why do people listen to it?”

“Not everyone does, but some people do because they just don't know it’s a bit silly, other people listen because they’re scared.”

“Some people don’t be capitalists?” Estelle has big wide eyes, like he’s told her she can have chocolate for dinner.

“Yes, some people aren’t capitalists,” Nico says chuckling at her reactions, “some people believe in communism, which is the idea that everyone should have the same amount of money, and when I was kid I grew up under fascism which meant the government controlled the money, and there’s socialism too which is the idea that everyone shares money.”

“Are we a capitalists? Nobody else feeds the lady and we did, are we not a capitalists?” 

“Well, America is a capitalist country, but when we gave Nikita food we were being both socialists and capitalists.” 

“Oh, so are we both?” 

Nico shrugs, “Everyone is many things, everything is different all the time, things change.”

“Oh, so we’re neither?”

“I don’t know, what do you think?”

“I think we’re whatever the nice people are.”

“I’d like to think so too.”

They walk their final block mostly in silence, right until they got close to the mall and Estelle seen Will walking towards them. At which point she asked Nico if she could run to him and scare him, “Go for it, I dare you!”

She ran at Will as fast as she could, he seen her at some point (generally anything hurdling at you when you’re a demigod will draw your eye in), Will caught her mid run and picked her up into his arms, Nico walks towards the two of them and he can see Will’s lips move in a “how has your day been?”

When Nico finally meets the pair of them near the entrance Will is nodding enthusiastically at whatever Estelle has to say and occasionally asking if she had fun doing a certain thing. 

“Hi,” Will takes his attention off of Estelle for a moment to greet Nico.

“Hi, nerd, how were classes?”

“Head hurts, too much thinking.”

“Hmph,” Nico nods, “M’sorry, _caro_.”

Will shrugs and sets Estelle down between them, “It’s alright, what are we doing at the mall today?”

She looks up at him, “We’re buying me pretty clothes so I can kick Jimmy’s ass!”

“Estelle, shhh, no,” Nico says trying his best to scold her and not laugh, he can see Will trying to not laugh too, “We can’t say that, remember?”

“Oh yeah…”

“So who’s this Jimmy?” Will asks, grabbing Estelle’s one hand as she offers Nico the other.

“Oh he’s the worst, let me tell you, I have him in my class and…”

“Your head really okay?”

“Mhmm, it’s fine, I’ll take a nap or something later.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

At some point during their quick exchange Estelle had quit talking about Jimmy (she never actually finished the whole story, she’s often distracted), and she turned to look at the two of them “Which store are we going to?”

“Anyone you want, you’ve got to look your best when fighting crime!” Nico tells her.

“Oh we should go to the fancy store then, I could get a nice dress- ooh, can I get shoes like yours?” She looks up at Nico, “Big fancy boots with metal on them? Could I?”

“Anything you want sounds good to me.”

“Nice!”

They end up finding their way towards Nordstrom, which is apparently what Estelle meant by “fancy store” and after seeing one price tag Will could understand why Estelle probably called it that, Nico didn’t seem to think it was that significant of a price tag.

“My shirt is literally worth double that, clothes are more expensive now than when I was a kid.”

Will decides it’s not worth the conversation, Nico has money and Will isn’t exactly starved for money either. Between Nico and his mom, if neither of them ever made another dollar and Will and Nico decided to have kids- so long as they kept to a middle class life they’d both probably be fine for years.

Will just files it away for later that he should probably get Nico caught up on the basics of economy and ask what clothes brands he was buying from sometime in the near future. 

Estelle finds some dresses she likes and they head towards the fitting rooms to try them on. 

“Do you want help or can you handle it?” Nico calls after her. 

“I'm a big girl!" Estelle cheers walking into a cubical to try her clothes on. 

“Alright let me know if you get stuck in anything again!" 

“It was one time!”

Will tries to hold back a laugh and succeeds at turning it into a chuckle, before he takes the moment of calm to try to begin to explain some basic economic progression to Nico. 

“No stop." 

“But-”

“I already had a conversation about economics today, I don't want to have a second one." 

Will gives him a confused look, “You sound like the opposite of whatever an economics major is…" 

Nico looks at him, “So an art student?”

Will doesn't even try to hold back that laugh, and just nods, “Okay, fair.”

“Damn right." 

“So who did you have an economic discussion with? Your father?”

Nico shoots him an unreadable look, Will’s been dating him for years and there's still so often something indescribable in his gaze. Something in Nico’s face shifts slightly, and Will catches a hint of humor in the expression, “So that's a no.”

“Me and little miss had a conversation on economics." 

“Did you now?" 

Nico hums in confirmation, and Estelle opens the door to her little changing room wearing a green dress that looks a little bit like a cupcake, “He told me about Capital-i-sm and Facebookism and Socialism too!”

“Fascism?” Will counters. 

“Yeah that!” she twirls, "What do you think of my dress?”

“It's green,” Will offers, Nico jabs him lightly with his elbow, “I like it!”

“It's pretty, _bimba_.”

“Maybe too green,” Estelle nods looking down at her dress, “yeah definitely too green." 

She turns around to go back into her changing room and closes the door. 

Will turns towards Nico, “You told her about fascism?”

“Yeah sure, why not?” Nico’s slouched back in his chair, and he’s got his arms crossed over his chest, he’d probably fall asleep like that eventually if he was left alone long enough. 

“Look where that got you!”

“A boyfriend?”

“I meant internalized homophobia and modern confusion but you've already won the argument." 

Nico nods triumphantly, “Good, my next line of defense was ‘well I am hot’ but I thought that might be a little too cocky." 

Will looks at Nico, “No, it wouldn't have been." 

Nico chooses to ignore that comment but Will can see the telltale flush of pink across the back of his neck and trailing up to his ears (score!).

Instead Nico chooses, “You're rather horrible with fashion." 

“Always happy to subvert stereotypes, darlin’.”

Eventually Estelle picks an overly glittered light blue dress with more tulle than Will had seen since he was a kid, it vaguely resembles a Cinderella dress but where silver accents would normally be added they’ve been traded for dark blue and gold. Will can tell Nico’s being a little overly enthusiastic because he’s trying to hide his slight-panic at the fabric of the dress (Nico’s rather particular about touch, especially fabrics), Estelle hugs him in the dress and Will can see how Nico does his best not to tense or recoil from the scratchy fabric.

Will stifles a laugh, “Estelle, let me help.”

Nico’s eyes go large with a silent ‘thank you’ in Will’s direction.

He helps her adjust the skirt of her dress, and ties the sparkly gold belt around her waist in the back too, so they can ensure it really fits right. After that Will unties the belt, undoes some obscure side button which apparently serves no purpose other than to make removing and putting the dress on more difficult and sends Estelle back into the dressing room where she promptly calls over the door “I’m stuck” less than a minute later. (At some point during this Nico slips off for a few minutes to find her those combat boots she wanted, and he returns with a bag bearing French words on it and Will decides he never wants to know what the receipt says)

Eventually Will manages to wiggle her arms out of the dress, she gets redressed in the clothes they arrived in, the dress is payed for (and Estelle is allowed to purchase some jewelry although she does have a slight price limit on that; “Nico she does not need a $500 necklace, there is a perfectly fine one that’s really similar for $40.”). Then they’re off back down busy Manhattan streets towards the Blofis-Jackson apartment to bring Estelle home and finish getting her ready to kick some ass, and impress her family with her cool looks while she did it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me @the-ghost-king on tumblr
> 
> I have no clue what they treat tulle with in factories or why they feel the need to always make it sparkle, tulle on it's own is really rather soft but something with how they treat/cure it in factories + the addition of sequins and glitter just makes it unbearable... All I'm saying is I am also weird about textures, do not ever hand me unglazed porcelain it is the worst texture in the whole word, I would learn how to smit god if I could erase it from existence... 
> 
> Italian:  
> bimba: "kiddo" (feminine)

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me @the-ghost-king on tumblr, and I'd like to thank @heyimboredtalktome, @glassamphibians, and many others for all their cool ideas and additions to this chapter and a few of the following ones!
> 
> Italian:  
> Pescolina means "little fish" in Italian  
> Bimba roughly means "kiddo"  
> Papera means "duck" and is only used for girls


End file.
